MARCH OF PROGRESS

Well-performed heavy rock/lite metal which cries back to the classic rockers of the 70s and 80s like JOURNEY and OZZIE OSBORNE. Again I am plagued by my questioning of the placement of this rather straightforward music within the realm of "progressive" rock. The sounds are polished, the vocals strong and Ozzie-like, but these sounds and vocals fail to match up with the structural the band seems to be trying to work with. There are many decent songs on this album, including "Liberty Complacency Dependency" (7:48) (8/10) (politics!), "Colophon" (6:00) (9/10), "That's Why We Came" (5:40) (8/10), "Don't Look Down" (8:12) (8/10) (I don't like the chorus/harmonized vocals), and my favorite, "Coda" (5:23) (9/10), but then there are several that, to my ears, never rise above sounding like the average stuff from the the 80s, and "Divinity" (6:27) (7/10) seems a direct rip off from the work of MAYNARD JAMES KEENAN (especially PUCIFER). Still, nice work for the listeners of Octane radio.

I agree with other reviewers: nice use of keyboards.